Released
by Soar318
Summary: A take on how Sonic and Fleetway Super Sonic might end up as friends, even after years of imprisonment...


**Released**

By Soar318

Walking through the dark hallway, the twisting, winding hallways…

Inside himself…

Shuddering, the thought still freaked him out, even though he had been walking along this hallway for a long time now…

He had long passed the room where his glowing Super and Hyper form resided, passed the room where his gloomy Darkspine and his gleaming Excalibur forms rested, had even walked straight past the room where Dark and WereSonic lived. True, he wanted so badly to go into any of those rooms and seek their company, but first, he had to do something.

Something he hadn't done in a long, long time, and something he had vowed he wouldn't do again…

Eventually, the seemingly metallic walls turned into swirling, gray mist, darkness and shadows skulking at the corners. It was a dark and forbidding place, one that he hadn't been in for a long, long time…

But he had no choice. What he wanted to do, whom he wanted to see, was here. So he had to put up with it.

Finally, he rounded the final bend, his red and white sneakers making no sound against the seemingly invisible, insubstantial floor. And he finally saw his goal.

Bound in chains with strange, green, glowing symbols on them, a single figure kneeled. His golden fur was rugged and messy, the cuffs of his gloves and socks ragged. Claws showed through the tips of his fingers, barely contained inside his gloves. The sneakers he wore were exactly the same as the figure standing before him were: red, with a white stripe, buckled down with a golden buckle. His head was bowed, upturned quills sagging. His triangular ears drooped; his breath came in ragged pants.

He was whom the figure had come to see.

As the figure walked towards him, the golden hedgehog wearily lifted his head and opened his eyes, showing glowing red eyes in the shape of a vortex. He studied the figure before him, absolutely expressionless.

"_What are you doing down here? This is no place for a gold-hearted hero like you," _the hedgehog rasped, his voice hoarse and husky. _"This is no the place for any hero."_

The figure gazed at him intensely, emerald eyes boring into swirling red ones. "I know, but all heroes have to come down here sometime."

A raspy chuckle. _"Most wouldn't dare to, too afraid to confront their deepest, darkest selves, their darkest fears, since they want themselves to believe that they are the perfect hero, having no darkness inside them, no weaknesses, no fears. They are fools to think so."_

"But in coming down here, I proved that I'm not an average hero, don't you think?"

Blood-red vortex eyes studied the royal blue figure in front of him. _"Maybe."_

"Oh?"

"_You haven't answered my question. What are you doing down here?"_

"To confront something, to correct something, and to free something."

"_Mind elaborating on that?"_

"Maybe."

A throaty sigh. _"You were always stubborn."_

"You should know."

"_I _**do**_ know, despite being chained here and abandoned for all these years."_ Lips curled into a faint snarl, and a growl came from the golden hedgehog.

"That is what I came to correct."

Ruby eyes blinked, and a mouth dropped open, revealing sharp fangs. The yellow hedgehog's closed expression changed into absolute shock and confusion.

"_What? You came down here, seeking to _**free me**_?" _

"Yes."

_"Don't you remember what had happened when I broke free all those years ago? The destruction I caused? The pain, the suffering, the tears, the cries?"_

"Yes."

"_Then why do you seek to free me?"_

"Was that regret I heard?"

A peach mouth immediately clamped shut, as the owner shook his head furiously.

_"I don't have regret. I am only a creature of chaos, of destruction-"_

"Liar, and I think I heard sadness in there too."

A weary groan. _"Idiot."_

A smirk on the blue figure's muzzle. "You should know better than me. I am you, just like you are me. You need me, just like I need you."

A stunned blink. _"You denied that before. Why do you accept that now?"_

The addressed figure gazed off to the side, as if he was lost in his thoughts. "After losing control, and unleashing Dark Sonic when Black Narcissus captured my friends, I think I finally realized an important lesson that I should have realized a long, long time ago…"

_"And that is?"_

"That everyone has a dark side. Even the most pure-hearted hero has one. And everyone will one day have to accept, and confront that side…"

"_What made you realize?"_

"I think having _three_ dark forms finally ticked me off."

A snigger_. "Knucklehead."_

"Save that for Knux," the figure shot back, grinning. Then he cocked his head. "Why are you regretting your previous actions? I thought they made you feel good."

Another sigh. _"Sometimes, one gets tired of fighting, you know? A life of pain and destruction could be extremely taxing. The living proof is Robotnik. Ask him sometime. But my point is, pain and destruction may seem sweet at the moment, especially as a villain, but trapped in your mind, a _**hero's**_ mind, made me see the difference between the pleasure of killing and destroying, and the pleasure of saving and building. Being forced to see it in a whole different perspective changed me, I guess…"_

"Yeah, I get what you mean. Sometimes I get tired of fighting Eggman, and I wonder why I don't step down and make someone else take the responsibility, or even become a villain myself. But I just have to keep on going, and saving the world was always more appealing to me than destroying it."

_"…I think we're more alike than either of us thinks."_

"You're right."

A silence.

Suddenly, the sapphire figure steps forward, and, grasping the glowing chains, begins to softly chant. After glowing brightly one last time, the chains turned into dust. Gently grabbing hold of the golden hedgehog, his counterpart helps him up.

Rubbing his wrists to get the blood flowing again, the golden hedgehog avoids looking at the figure next to him, muttering a _"Why?"_

"Because everyone needs to confront their dark side."

Blinking, the yellow figure looked up, and into the blue hedgehog's eyes. Red into green, ruby into emerald, blood into grass, villain into hero. And in that moment, their thoughts mixed, each understanding each other's memories, their minds becoming one.

The golden hedgehog then became to fade, little by little.

"I'll see you soon?" the blue hedgehog asked with a smile.

_"When you awaken me, and when that happens, I give you my word that I won't control you, or try to destroy."_

"And I won't try to control you either. Who knows, maybe you'll even get along with the others."

A soft chuckle escaped the now near-transparent hedgehog. _"Maybe."_

And then he disappeared.

But as the lone blue hedgehog turned back to enjoy the company of his other forms, a single whisper tugged at his ears:

_"You are truly not the average hero, Sonic, since the average hero would never had been able to make their dark side understand the happiness of doing good, much less confront them. And because you overcame the hatred you felt for me, I owe you my freedom and my life. Because of you, I am finally released… Farewell, for now, and a million thank yous…Sonic…the Hedgehog."_

_"My anchor, my counterpart, my…friend."_

_**End**_


End file.
